Merkley on health options

Following up on yesterday’s post on the lightly-mentioned state-run insurance funds – which do provide some health insurance for employees – it turns out that a mention of them was made yesterday by Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley. (And, his staff says, not for the first time.)

Appearing on Fox news, Merkley made a number of useful points. (The insurance fund reference, toward the end, was relatively brief but hit a mark.) The trillion-dollar cost of one current proposal gets batted around a lot, but seldom in the context – which Merkley provided – of overall projected health spending during that time of $40 trillion. And the highly useful point that many of the fiscal benefits of the proposal, especially in the area of preventive care, haven’t been “scored” by federal budget analysts because no firm numbers for them exist – although there’s little doubt those benefits would be substantial.

Not a long interview (and cut off by the Fox interviewers with a slice of unwarranted snark at the end) but a useful listen,